RURAL HOUSING 329 



no privies of any kind. The better grade of farm house is always 

 provided with some sort of sanitary convenience, but the number 

 where it is anything more than the ordinary outdoor privy is com- 

 paratively small. The neglected privy is the greatest danger to 

 the health of the farming community, and a menace to the popula- 

 tion of the towns through the part which it must play in the 

 contamination of milk, vegetables, and fruits sent to city markets. 

 It defiles the soil all around it, and unless carefully located may 

 pollute the family water supply. The fact is so generally known 

 that it is not necessary to give statistics showing that serious epi- 

 demics have been started by the use of water from country wells 

 polluted by the disease-infected privy. It is the breeding place 

 of countless generations of flies, and when used by persons suf- 

 fering from any kind of infectious disease, as fevers, dysentery, 

 diarrhea, and the like, the contagion may be spread far and wide 

 by their agency. The family cess pool is but one degree less 

 dangerous than the outdoor privy, and together they have un- 

 doubtedly been responsible for a vast amount of sickness and 

 death. 



OVERCROWDING AND DEFECTIVE HOUSING 1 



HARVEY BASHORE 



WHAT is the result of this overcrowding and lack of proper 

 housing in the country? Just exactly the same as in the great 

 cities. Lack of efficiency, disease, and premature death to many. 

 We have been talking much lately of our conservative policy of 

 lumber, coal and wild animals, but in many instances fail to see 

 the great loss due to human inefficiency brought about by lack of 

 suitable environment. While the great majority of people sub- 

 jected to overcrowding and bad housing conditions do not prema- 

 turely die, yet they have lessened physical and mental vigor, are 

 less able to do properly their daily work, and not only become a 

 loss to themselves and their families, but to the Stale: and for- 

 ever stand on the threshold of that dread disease tuberculosis; 

 for tuberculosis is the one great disease of the overcrowded. 



1 Adapted from "Overcrowding and Defective Housing," pp. 80-02, John 

 Wilev and Son, N. V. 



